Home Home There are over thirty highly competitive races, and riding takes place every morning of the week... read more The 150 Years of Winter Sports Video In celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Winter Tourism, the SMTC commissioned the following video from Ryan Larraman of Crestaphotos. We are proud of our long association with St Moritz and the Engadine and the friendship that binds us. Beginners on the Cresta Run Beginners can book a slot for their first day of riding by choosing a practice session from our calendar and following the instructions from there. Beginners are required to review and agree to our Terms and Conditions . You can find out more about riding as a beginner here . Quick Links The Cresta Run requires guts if you want the glory - The Field The Field 0shares 0shares The Cresta Run in St Moritz is a sport with a thrill like no other. So grab your tweed and head for the mountains. The Cresta Run is held every year in Switzerland’s glitziest town. So when the shooting has finished and the hunting frozen off reserve your place on the Cresta Run, for thrills and spills aplenty.

The St Moritz Tobogganing Club (SMTC) is over 125 years old, and only those with suitable dash and a dollop of vim seek out the thrill of the ultimate downhill ride. The St Moritz Tobogganing Club The Cresta Run, indeed, all winter sports in the Alps, have their origins in a bet made in September 1864 by Johannes Badrutt, the proprietor of the Engadiner Kulm hotel in St Moritz, to four English guests. The hamlet had an average of 322 days sunshine a year, a dry, invigorating climate and mineral springs renowned for their curative properties, and was a popular summer destination for Britons seeking the thrill of mountaineering or suffering from tuberculosis. At the end of the summer Badrutt attempted to convince his guests that winter in the Alps was just as attractive as summer. If they returned in December they could stay as long as they liked at his expense and if he were wrong he would reimburse their travel expenses.

The Englishmen had a glorious time in the sunshine, skating on the lake, wallowing in the baths and tobogganing on schlittli; they returned home to spread the word that winter in the Alps was an experience not to be missed. Thus the Alpine winter season was born and with it an enduring Anglo-Swiss relationship. THE CRESTA RUN, THE BEGINNING: RACING THE STREETS OF ST MORITZ Until skiing started in the 1890s, tobogganing was the principal entertainment and newly established winter resorts reverberated to the hoots and yells of Brits of both sexes racing one another down the busy, winding streets of towns such as St Moritz, Davos, Aros and Chamonix. Clubs and committees were formed and races organised on the icy downhill roads. At one time, there were more than 40 “village” pistes across the French, Swiss and Italian Alps, the most challenging being the steep 3.2 kilometre post-road from Davos to Klosters. In 1883, John Addington Symonds, the British author and poet, founded the Davos Toboggan Club and organised the first international races.

These took place over a week of balls and dinners, with seven nations represented among the 21 competitors. This led to the Symonds International Challenge Cup and, a little later, the Freeman’s Trophy for women competitors, named after Edith Freeman who rode her toboggan, The Behemoth, with total disregard for her own or anyone else’s safety. Edith Freeman on The Behemoth, rode her toboggan with total disregard for her own or anyone else’s safety. Among the St Mortiz contingent in Davos were members of the British Winter Residents Outdoor Sports Committee. Realising that Davos had stolen a march on St Moritz, they enlisted the help of Peter Badrutt, Johannes’ son, who was now running the much-enlarged Hotel Kulm, to build a toboggan run. They staked out a three-quarter mile course following the contours of the valley from the Hotel Kulm, past the hamlet of Cresta to the outskirts of Celerina, and when the snows arrived in November, they set to work. SKELETON RACING ON SNOW.

CREATING THE CRESTA RUN Roger Gibbs, in The Cresta Run 1885-1985, describes the committee, their boots swathed in coarse bandages and arms linked, trudging time and again along the staked-out line until the snow was trampled down for the frost to harden. Creating earth banks for a framework on which to pile snow was a drawn-out business and icing the Run required endless buckets of water but with labour and materials provided by Peter Badrutt, it was completed in January 1885. The first official toboggan races took place in Davos. The Davos Toboggan Club was invited to compete in the first Grand National Cresta Run on 16 February, and, to the chagrin of the course builders, the visitors won. However, the celebrations in the Kulm’s Sunny Bar eclipsed anything seen in Davos. The Cresta Run was a rough-and-ready affair down which men and women careered sitting upright on their schlittli and steering with their heels or wooden picks, but improvements and innovations were quick in coming.

A Mr Cornish astonished everyone by lying head-first on his toboggan to ride the 1887 Grand National Cresta Run, a position universally adopted, except by women, in 1888. That year a skeleton-framed toboggan was introduced to the Cresta Run, with steel runners and a pad on which the rider lay, using metal rakes on his boots to brake and steer. This was further refined in 1902 with the sliding seat, which allowed riders to move their weight backwards and forwards as they negotiated the banks. By now the design of the Cresta Run was established as a serpentine ice tube of 10 banked corners, approximately 1,212 metres in length with a drop of 157 metres and a gradient of 1 in 2.8 to 1 in 8.7, down which experienced riders hurtled at speeds approaching 112kph. The Kulm Hotel is rather grander than inthe days of Johannes Badrutt, who started the fashion for winter sports.

THE MODERN CRESTA RUN Open from just before Christmas until the end of February, the Cresta Run is still hand-built from scratch every year with costs met by the SMTC and its 1,300 members plus active support from the Kurverein, the St Moritz town council. It follows the original route and is recognisably the same as the 1885 construction, although constant upgrading of bank design and icing quality enables riders to reach speeds of 128kph on the modern Cresta Run. The Cresta Run has survived partly because it is unique and riding it is probably the last truly amateur sport; partly because over the years the Kurverein has supported the Club through financial vicissitudes; and partly because the Run is an extreme sport that provides a thrill unlike any other. The SMTC is generous in providing time and expertise to encourage beginners, many of whom become devoted members. In February 1973, I was in St Moritz for the last race of a season’s bobsleighing and thought I would stay on to try the Cresta Run.

I remember my first ride far more vividly than any of the runs on various bob tracks – even the one by moonlight on an old practice bobsleigh with a pot-valiant Frenchman at the helm. At 8am I was at Junction, two thirds of the way down (where beginners start), clad in leather knee and elbow pads, gloves with metal plates, helmet, chin guard and spiked boots. Air Marshall Ramsay Rae, the SMTC secretary, announced over the tannoy that the Run was free and with a series of kangaroo hops I pushed the toboggan off. Immediately things went awry. I landed too far forward and was badly out of alignment, banging from side to side as I picked up speed down Junction Straight, slithering round the first corner, Rise, like a drunken crab, hitting the wall an almighty thump as I came out. Battledore was negotiated rather niftily but then the Run dropped away and Shuttlecock, the long, raking left-hand bank, was upon me.

I slewed dangerously to the left, dug my right foot in frantically, almost became unseated, bounced round Stream Corner and wobbled down Bledisloe Straight, entering the sharp left-hander at Bulpetts too high and earning myself another clout as I exited. Down the long straight to Scylla I whizzed with surprising grace and on to Charybdis, with the ice rumbling inches below my face and an unbelievable impression of ever-increasing speed. Heart in mouth, I cleared Cresta Leap to cannon painfully from wall to wall down the last stretch, arriving at Finish to hear the Air Marshall announce that J Scott appeared to have arrived in one piece. It was a deeply humbling experience, made all the more so when some of the Cresta Run riders presented me with a cup inscribed, “Johnny Scott, Cresta King”, but the abiding memory is of having achieved something remarkable. Over the decades, the lure and excitement of the Cresta Run has attracted people of many nationalities and backgrounds, a loyal following of millionaires and nobles, commoners and royalty. Yet it has always been democratic. Membership of the SMTC is by no means exclusively aristocratic or even particularly wealthy.

Indeed, two of the very best riders were St Moritz shopkeepers – the great Nino Bibbia, a grocer, and Paul Felder, who owned a clock shop. From its beginnings the SMTC has been a partnership between the people of St Moritz and the British, and the town would not be the same without it. Bill Herrick Where can I order the gloves that participants in The Cresta Run wear. Thanks Hels This is a great story, especially once I read Roger Gibbs book. There is no way on earth I would lie in a coffin shape and go hurtling down a mountain, head first. But I can imagine the excitement of those brave people in 1885. Thanks for the link Cresta Run, St. Moritz Cresta Run, St. Moritz ABOVE: A rider brakes by sliding back on the sled and digging in his toe cleats. By Durant Imboden To most people (especially in North America), the word "toboggan" evokes memories of flat-bottomed wooden sleds bouncing down a snow-covered hill in a neighborhood park. At the Cresta Run in St.

Moritz, Switzerland, the term has an altogether different meaning: it's used to describe a steel "skeleton sled" that may reach speeds of nearly 80 mph (129 km/h) over its 3/4-mile or 1.2 km course from St. Moritz to the neighboring village of Celerina. A Victorian legacy The Cresta Run had its beginnings in the autumn of 1884, when George Robertson and Charles Digby-Jones of the British winter residents' Outdoor Sports Committee staked out a course from above the Hotel Kulm to the outskirts of Celerina. When the snows arrived in November, the five committee members went to work. Their labors are described in The Cresta Run 1885-1985, the centenary anniversary book that Roger Gibbs wrote for the St. Moritz Tobogging Club: With their boots swathed in coarse bandages they linked arms and trudged their way time and again along the line that had ben staked out until the snow was trampled down for the frost to harden.

The building of the banks was an even more complicated drawn out and complicated affair and all in all it took almost nine weeks to build the first Cresta Run. With the help of endless carrying of buckets the Run was iced throughout. In early January, the new Run's builders invited the British community in Davos, Switzerland to send over ten tobogganists for a "Grand National" competition, thereby starting a racing tradition that has been broken only by two World Wars. Olympics Note: At the 1928 Olympic Winter Games in St. Moritz, skeleton tobogganing was an official sport: a distinction it hasn't enjoyed since, perhaps because Cresta-style tobogganing--like Swiss wines--is best enjoyed within Switzerland's borders. A century of evolution As the years passed, the Cresta Run's toboggans evolved from tall wooden sleds of the classic European design into low, streamlined platforms designed to reduce wind resistance and provide greater stability in tight corners. The riding technique also changed from sitting upright to lying face down with the head forward, using body position and toe cleats to control direction, speed, and braking.

(The sliding seat was added in 1902, but some of today's fastest riders are again using fixed sleds.) Nowadays, the Cresta's skeleton toboggans resemble mechanics' creepers with steel tubing underneath. Athletic "tobogganers" in sleek wet suits and crash helmets grasp handles near the front of the sled, lying flat or pushing themselves upwards as necessary to negotiate the straightaways and treacherous curves of a course that drops 514 feet (157 meters) and has an average gradient of 13 per cent. A skilled toboganner can finish the 3/4-mile run in less than a minute, for an average speed of more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) an hour. ABOVE: The Cresta Run's clubhouse is located at Junction, below the aptly named Church Leap. A ride for the fearless In The Cresta Run 1885-1985*, Roger Gibbs describes a ride down the ice chute on a skeleton toboggan: In order that as much riding as possible can take place each day, before the fierce sun softens the ice, races start as early as 8:30 a.m.

At that hour in the morning it is usually bitterly cold. The competitor waits his turn at the top of the Run, with a feeling of apprehension and excitement. The bell tolls. Although now committed in the Run he is relieved the waiting is over and he is on his way. The first hundred yards are relatively uneventful but the rider knows only too well that the drop in the next three-quarters of a mile is 514 feet, a fall of 1 in 7.7, with his eyes only four inches above the Run. Soon he is under the road bridge just before Church Leap doing about twenty miles an hour--then a sheer drop of one in 2.8 into three very tight corners--Curzon, Brabazon and Thoma. In a matter of seconds his speed has increased to 50 mph as he flashes past the Clubhouse at Junction, down the straight on his way to the right-handed corner Rise, steadying the toboggan before taking the next bend, Battledore.

Diving off Battledore into the low, raking, notorious corner of Shuttlecock, round Shuttlecock and into the right-handed bend of Stream before speeding on his way down the long straight toward s the road bridge at Bulpetts--doing nearly 70 mph; under the railway bridge at Scylla, left-handed out of Scylla into the final corner Charybdis and down the last leap, crossing the finishing beam at a speed in the region of 80 mph [129 km/h]. An expert completes this course in about fifty-three seconds or even a little less. To win any race on the Cresta is a fine achievement for all races are highly competitive, but there are riders who think that even to arrive safely at the Finish at all is a miracle--and in some instances it is! And now, it's your turn. You, too, can risk life and limb on the Cresta Run--providing you're in St. Moritz during the season (which normally runs from just before Christmas through the end of February), are a male over 18 years of age, and can afford the CHF 600 fee.

(Women are out of luck--the SMTC is a bros' club.) Your payment entitles you to a beginners' booklet, a quick introduction to the basics of skeleton toboganning, and up to five rides down the Cresta Run with equipment supplied by the club. Related Web site and article St Moritz: The Cresta run - Telegraph Switzerland St Moritz: The Cresta run In spite of extensive modernisation, an atmosphere of privilege and style endures at the home of the Cresta Run, writes Peter Hardy 12:00AM GMT 13 Nov 2000 IT is eight o'clock on a bitter morning in the Swiss Engadine and my friend Amin has suddenly stopped gibbering inanely about the weather. Instead he has adopted the unnatural calm of a soldier in the final moments before battle. Riding on ice: horse racing on the frozen lake is a popular winter attraction in St Moritz It takes some skill, and rather less than a minute, to ride the three-quarter mile ribbon of polished ice known as the Cresta Run which links St Moritz with the lower lying village of Celerina. It also requires either a mountain of courage or a total absence of imagination.

Yesterday Amin fell, crashing out of the track into a pile of straw bales and narrowly escaping injury from the toboggan, which is so heavy that it takes two people to lift it. The experience has unnerved, but not apparently deterred, him. Most of us would say that to hurtle voluntarily through 10 banked bends at a speed of up to 60mph, while lying head-first on a heavy steel toboggan with your nose three inches off the ice, is tantamount to complete insanity. The risk of injury appears unacceptably high. In the course of two hours, I saw two riders taken to the hospital where another lay comatose in intensive care from an appalling accident the previous week. Yet every winter for over a century, fresh-faced, young and predominantly British holidaymakers gather at dawn in the track-side club house of the St Moritz Tobogganing Club for their initiation. In theory, anyone can become a temporary member of this last crusty bastion of Alpine colonialism - provided of course that he is male. Women are not allowed. To take your place among the handful of novices each day all you need is sufficient bottle and the requisite £200 for instruction and five rides.

In practice, the overwhelming majority of the British riders appear to fall into that same social bracket for such winter pastimes dictated by Sir Henry Lunn, the forefather of the ski package holiday. To qualify for inclusion in his trips to Mürren in 1911 you had "to be educated at a public school or a university, or to have held a commission in the Army or Navy". In 90 years, little seems to have changed. The atmosphere in the St Moritz Tobogganing Club this February dawn reminds me unwillingly of long-forgotten schooldays. Listening to the stentorian chatter in the club room and to the beginners' briefing, one couldn't help but surmise that those who missed out the first time on gaining the coveted prefect's badge were enjoying a second bite at the cherry. "Gentlemen, you are here to enjoy yourself, you are not here to end up in hospital," intoned a veteran member, "but if you don't do as you are told, you certainly will - you there in the green jersey, I'm saying this for your own good so you would be well advised to wake up and listen.

"Never wear your signet ring, or those things that I understand are called wedding rings. If you fall and damage your arm, the doctor will have to cut if off - the ring, I mean. Riding the Cresta and doing nothing is bloody dangerous. Unless you control it, your toboggan will not stay in the run and you will fall at the corner called Shuttlecock. "In the event of this happening you must follow my instructions exactly, otherwise you will get the Cresta Kiss. That's what we call it when a bit of your face is taken away . . ." It was time to take myself away. The Cresta, founded by a British group of recuperating TB patients in 1885, is the source of the international fame of St Moritz. But it is only a single component of the greatest of all winter sport playgrounds that is currently undergoing a mighty renaissance. Back in 1864, a hotelier called Johannes Badrutt famously overheard a group of four Englishmen bemoaning their imminent departure for London at the beginning of autumn. He suggested they return in the New Year, and promised to pay for their journey if there was less sunshine than in summer.

Winter sports were born and St Moritz was the arena. Over the years its name has become so synonymous with wealth and style that the resort took legal action in 1986 to protect itself as a brand name in 50 countries around the world. The Cresta and the nearby bobsleigh grab the limelight, but a startling diversity of entertainment is centred around the lake, which freezes solid without fail each winter. Not only can you skate and curl, but you can also play golf and ice hockey as well as watch horse-riding, polo, and even cricket on the frozen lake. Of course, you can also ski, but this remains just one of many ways of passing the daylight hours before the serious business of dining at Chesa Veglia and dancing the night away at the Kings' Club. In 1907 the Ski Club of Great Britain recorded: "It is curious that, whilst among the Engadines ski-running is so popular, the sport should languish amongst the English Colony.

The Visitors' Club does not suffer from lack of money, but from what is of much more importance - lack of energy." Still, today, a high proportion of visitors conserve their strength for bouts of shopping in the fabulous boutiques of St Moritz, with a break for a four-course lunch followed by the ritual apres-ski coffee and cakes at Hanselmann's. Lunch means La Marmite, a pretentious-looking restaurant on the piste at Corviglia. Hartly Mathis, the first man to bring haute cuisine to the high mountains, still makes guest appearances in the kitchen where caviar and truffles are counted by the kilo. In high season you need to book a fortnight ahead. His son Reto presides over the two daily sittings at what many would argue is the finest lunch-spot above 2000m in the world. Business is as good as ever, but these days Reto makes more from marketing his most prized concoction. This is not a dish, but a culinary machine that produces perfect al dente pasta at the flick of switch. Money, like snow, has never been lacking in the richest of all resorts.

St Moritz has started to update its 55 lifts and plans to spend a further £175 million doing so over the next 12 years. At the same time, its four most famous five-star hotels are investing a further £125 million to bring facilities in line with the 21st century demands of their high-profile clientele. The greatest of these is the Suvretta House, a resort-within-a-resort that has its own ski lift, ski school, skating rink and three mountain restaurants. The hotel stores from year to year the skis and entire winter wardrobe of regular guests. In the halcyon days that followed the First World War, the Maharajah of Hyderabad took up the offer and arrived with 500 trunks and 300 pieces of hand luggage. Nijinsky - the dancer, not the horse - gave his last public performance in the ballroom. Other guests have included King Farouk, the Aga Khan, the Shah of Iran, Eva Peron, and even Lenin. It is the only Alpine hotel I have stayed in where a man has to wear a dinner jacket to dine in the main restaurant.

Critics argue that this legacy of grandeur from a bygone age is unnecessarily stuffy. While older visitors enjoy the formality, such a policy might deter younger, more sports-conscious guests. Entering this magnificent dining hall is an intimidating experience. You can't help but feel you have inadvertently intruded on a convention of the super-rich, who have been seated at the same tables for your entire lifetime. To counterbalance this image, the hotel opened the Teddy Bear Club kindergarten, which has its own children's restaurant. Last summer the hotel closed for the first time in its history for a complete makeover to give it more youth appeal. It re-opens this Christmas with improvements that include a giant indoor swimming pool, as well as indoor and outdoor hot-tubs. But by far the biggest changes in St Moritz have taken place on the slopes. New lifts make the three main ski areas much more accessible and have dispensed with nearly all of the bottlenecks that plagued them. Corviglia, reached by train from the town or from the Suvretta by its own lift, provides plenty of intermediate cruising. Corvatsch on the other side of the valley and Diavolezza-Lagalb offer more advanced terrain.

Down in Celerina at the end of the Cresta, my friend Amin is still lost for words as he completes his run in a creditable 63 seconds and his toboggan is hauled aboard the support lorry for the return journey to the top of the track. It takes 15 minutes for the look of fear to leave his face and his heartbeat to return to normal. Would he do it again? Amin takes some time to consider the question. "No," he says eventually, "not in a million years. But I'll come back to St Moritz whenever I can." So, for that matter, will I. Peter Hardy's trip to St Moritz was arranged by Momentum Ski (020 7371 9111, ): a seven-night stay costs around £1,100. Price is half-board per person and is based on two people sharing a standard double room, including Swissair flights and first-class rail transfers. The Cresta Run: Rugby's Matt Dawson tackles St Moritz's world famous toboggan track | Daily Mail Online comments Get Shuttlecock wrong and you'll wipe out.

I couldn't get the warning out of my head as I perched on my ancient toboggan waiting for the start signal. I felt my pulse begin to quicken. My body was just inches above the sheer ice, my hands --inside special thick protective gloves - were damp with sweat. Success or failure would come down to how well I could control a rapidly hurtling sledge at one key moment. At the clubhouse we had been given terrifying evidence of just how seriously you could injure yourself if things went badly wrong. What was the name of the man who had broken his neck? Down, and soon to be out: Matt Dawson prepares to launch himself down the infamous Cresta Run Dismal thoughts were interrupted by the signal to go. Suddenly, I was off, plunging downhill at a speed that felt uncomfortably . . . breakneck. In my rugby career I've been lucky enough to pick up some of sport's glittering prizes - but completing my third and final run on a toboggan down the Cresta Run, I enjoyed an adrenalin rush every bit as intense as the day we lifted the rugby World Cup in Australia.

My travelling companion - Olympic rowing gold medallist James Cracknell - had set me a time to beat of 59.41 seconds. As I launched myself down the helter-skelter run, painfully ricocheting off the Cresta's concrete-hard frozen walls, I knew success or failure would come down to the infamous Shuttlecock turn. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Get it right and I might overtake the time set by Crackers. Get it wrong and I would fly off the track, risking serious injury. All Shuttlecock casualties, however, can count on one thing: hoots of laughter from the discerning crowd watching from the members' balcony of the St Moritz Tobogganing Club. This month this highly distinguished organisation - which has served generations of Alpine thrill-seekers - celebrates the Cresta Run's 125th anniversary. A visit to the club provides a vivid reminder that while in recent years winter sports have become the Olympic gold medal preserve of other nations, it was we British who pioneered them. When I entered the clubhouse, my first impression was that it was like a rowing club or a traditional golf club such as the R&A in St Andrews.

The heritage and style of the club reveals a mixture of influences: there is a strong Armed Forces background to it. It also feels like an Oxbridge members' club. There is that distinctive feel of tradition and history: on the wall is an honours board and you can't help being impressed by the extraordinary displays of historic photos. When Crackers invited me to join him in St Moritz to test our mettle on the Cresta Run, I accepted in a flash. I used to ski quite a bit until I was 19 when I started playing rugby. James had done some cross-country skiing but no real downhill skiing, so we were both a little sceptical about how we would get on in the snow. James told me that tackling the Cresta Run was something he'd always wanted to do --high on his wish list of Top 20 Winter Thrills. Asked if he knew of any other lunatics who might like to give it a go with him, naturally he thought of me.

Saints alive: The Cresta Run begins its heady descent in the resort of St Moritz I should confess I have been tobogganing before - I was about eight years old, and I fell off and ended up having 16 stitches down the front of my nose. I'd never tackled anything like the Cresta Run, though, and I loved the buzz and thrill of it. Until I arrived at the St Moritz Tobogganing Club, I really had no idea what to expect. It's a private club founded in 1888, three years after the creation of the Cresta Run, which is built from scratch every year with snow which is then iced. The run starts in St Moritz, winds its way through the hamlet of Cresta and ends in Celerina. It is approximately three-quarters of a mile long with a drop of 514ft. The run has ten corners, all of them named. The most famous - or infamous - is Shuttlecock: a long, low, raking, left-hand bank about halfway down the run, designed as a sort of safety valve.

The club's official blurb says: 'If riders are out of control, they are certain to go out of Shuttlecock into a carefully prepared falling area of snow and straw.' It's estimated that about one in 12 tobogganers wipe out at Shuttlecock (though the average is higher for beginners like me). Fallers at Shuttlecock automatically become members of the Shuttlecock Club and are entitled to wear a Shuttlecock tie. I wasn't planning on joining this particular club. Before James and I were let loose on the run, we had to attend a briefing. Club secretary David Payne showed us a composite X-ray of a skeleton which illustrated all the different broken bones acquired over the years by those attempting the Cresta Run. The idea is to scare you into realising how dangerous this is and show you how you should use your boots to rake - or brake. Fascinated, I was busy making notes into my iPhone - 'Lord Bledisloe, shattered foot' - when suddenly Mr Payne spun around and glared at me: 'Dawson, would you mind concentrating on what I'm saying?' I went puce with embarrassment. It was as if I was back in the fourth form at school.

I looked at Mr Payne with puppy-dog eyes. 'But I'm only making notes on what you're saying,' I whimpered. 'I'll take questions afterwards,' he snapped. It seems I had transgressed by having a mobile phone in my hand. New technology is frowned upon here: perhaps I should have been jotting in a leather-bound journal. During the scary parts of the briefing, James and I were looking at each other as if to say: 'What on earth have we got ourselves into here?' But assurance was at hand when we looked at the members at the back of the room. They were mostly over 40, with some over 60. I was thinking to myself, it can't be that dangerous if these guys are going down the run several times a year. My feeling was that there are certainly risks - common injuries include broken fingers - but if you follow the briefing and do things in the order you're supposed to, you minimise them. My 'guru' - Cresta-speak for tobogganing tutor - was Arnold von Bohlen und Halbach, who has also coached former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau and Prince Edward. German nobility is well represented here.

I was slightly startled to discover that current membership of the club includes two grandsons of Hitler's foreign minister, Von Ribbentrop. Timeless classic: Italian Nino Bibbia rides the Cresta Run during the Winter Olympics of 1948 While speed is of the essence, the Cresta Run's twists and turns needed to be treated with respect. Guru Arnold offered sage advice on the need to 'rake' --digging in the metal points on the toes of your boots in order to slow down. My first two runs down the Cresta, however, were completed without great alarm. The mark of success is a time under one minute. My first time was 65 seconds: not bad. After my second run I waited at the bottom of the course for David Payne's announcement. He sits at the top of the Cresta tower combining the twin roles of adjudicator and commentator. 'Dawson - 59.91 seconds, well done!' he barked. Terse - but in the stiff-upper-lip world of Cresta, this counts as the heartiest of congratulations. As I climbed back up for my third and final run, I was slightly dizzy with adrenaline and woozy with self-congratulation.

I had a ten Swiss franc (£6) bet with Crackers as to who could record the fastest time. I felt the money was safe after my subone minute performance. James Cracknell is not an Olympic double gold medallist for nothing, however. He completed his third descent ahead of me. As I was waiting to go, I could see the clock. It flashed up 59.41 seconds. He had absolutely gunned it. Guru Arnold must have seen what was going through my mind. 'Take it easy on Shuttlecock - remember to rake,' he said. Determined to beat Crackers, I kept the brakes off and headed to Shuttlecock with the feeling that I was firmly in the groove: surely nothing could go wrong. Of course, plenty could go wrong. Perhaps I was too fast, maybe I got my entry into the turn slightly wrong. Suddenly my toboggan grew wings and I found myself flying through the air with the greatest of ease. Conscious of the dangers of bashing myself on the toboggan, I had the presence of mind to make sure we were well separated before I crashed in an ungainly heap in the snow and straw. How they chortled on the balcony.

You must be Crackers: Matt (right) and rower James Cracknell after their brush with the Cresta Run I was shaken but stirred. That one minute while you're racing downhill is one of the greatest buzzes you can get in sport. I can easily see why people come back here again and again - the Cresta Run is addictive. It had been a fabulous day. We had been up at dawn for Krug champagne and a bacon sandwich and we followed the Cresta Run with hot chocolate at the luxury Badrutts Palace hotel. James and I then hit the ski slopes. We toyed with the idea of flapping about on blue slopes and embarrassing ourselves. But we decided we would go right to the top and go straight into all the red runs. We had the time of our lives. It was a thoroughly wonderful day. I'll be back - and next time I'll be ready for Shuttlecock. Travel Facts The Cresta Run ( offers beginners tuition, equipment and up to five rides for £350. With the run open for just another four weeks, anyone keen to have a go this season should make arrangements immediately, says the SMTC.

SWISS (0845 601 0956, offers flights to Zurich from Heathrow, London City, Birmingham and Manchester, with return fares starting at £89. The Swiss Transfer Ticket offers round-trip rail transfers from the airport to St Moritz from £75. Visit or call 00800 10020030. Double rooms at the Hotel Steffani ( during the Cresta season in February start at £330 per night. The Cresta Run - The Grand National - YouTube The Cresta Run - The Grand National Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Feb 4, 2014 While Sochi has attracted the world's top luge and skeleton riders for the Winter Olympics, St Moritz in Switzerland has just held the important Grand National Cresta Run for toboggan riders.

Riders made three runs down the course, which has ten corners and is 0.75 miles (1.2 kms) long. Riders can reach speeds of 75 mph (120 kph). The winner was Lord Clifton Wrottesley, a peer from Galway on Ireland's West coast. It is his fourth Grand National win, and he is the only competitor to win the club's grand slam (the Morgan, Curzon and Grand National events) three times. Wrottesley has had Olympic success, coming fourth in the skeleton race at Salt Lake City in 2002. Unlike a bobsled track, which is man-made with high-banked corners, The Cresta Run is hand-made from the snow with no concrete or wood support. Every spring the track melts away and has to be constructed again by hand once the winter snow returns. As it lacks high banking, the Cresta riders frequently crash over the bank and off the course. One corner, Shuttlecock, is notorious for causing crashes. Every competitor who crashes at Shuttlecock automatically becomes a member of the Shuttlecock Club, and is entitled to wear a special tie.

The Cresta Run held its first major race in 1885 and was orginally started by the English who congregated at St Moritz for its winter sports and high life. Cresta riders now come from around the world and anyone who rides the course is automatically a temporary member of the St Moritz toboggan club where much champagne is consumed. Category History of the Club Contact History of the Club The first Cresta Run was completed in January 1885 and took nearly nine weeks to build. Since its inception it has been, and remains, the most thrilling ice run in the world. It is still built from scratch every year using the natural contours of the valley and earth banks to provide a framework on which to pile the snow. The Run from Junction is built first, the upper banks second. It has 10 testing corners, all of which are named. The First Rider The first rider to adopt the now traditional head-first position was Mr Cornish in the 1887 Grand National. He finished fourteenth after three erratic rides, but established a trend and by the 1890 Grand National all competitors were riding head first. Mrs J.M.

Baguley was the last lady to ride the Cresta in a race on 13th January 1925. Ladies rode in practice after that date, but were banned from riding on 6th January 1929. Equipment Toboggans have evolved dramatically from the original Swiss Schlitten, starting with the introduction of the 'America' by Mr L.P. Child in 1887. This form of skeleton toboggan with metal runners was further refined by Mr Arden Bott in 1902, who added the sliding seat. This helped the rider move his weight backwards or forwards on the toboggan. Although all riders still learn to ride on these Traditional toboggans, the best riders' toboggans are nowadays made of modern composite materials, have no sliding seats and are known as Flat Tops. Building the Run The first Cresta Run was built in the winter of 1884/85 by five guests who formed the outdoor amusements committee of the Kulm Hotel. Their original intention was that St Moritz should provide an event to compete with the International Toboggan Race organized by Davos am Platz and to return the hospitality shown by their neighbours in previous years.

Since the very beginning, the construction of the Cresta Run to the approval of the SMTC Committee has relied on the skills of families of local master builders. Before the last war, the Run had been built for some 40 years by the Italian Benzoni and his son. After that the Run was built by the Brantschen family, the father succeeded by his son Christian, whose company is now owned by the Seiler Group. The Brantschens have both ridden the Cresta, father winning the Coppa d’Italia Cup in 1956 and son Christian the Beatrice Cartwright Cup in 1978. The builders do a truly amazing job, not only constructing the Run in December and early January but also maintaining it throughout the season - working from the early hours of the morning in preparation for the day’s riding. There is a member of the construction team helping and keeping watch at the start, finish and all major banks during riding. In recognition of their vital work, skill and dedication, Christian Brantschen and his senior foreman, Natalino Bera, have both been elected Honorary Members of the SMTC.

The Classic Races The first race on the Cresta against Davos, named the Grand National, was held on 16th February 1885. The 100th Grand National was held on 13th February 2010. The four major classic Cresta Races are for the Curzon Cup (1910), the Morgan Cup (1935), the Brabazon Trophy (1966) and the Grand National (1885), the original and most prestigious of the many Cresta trophies. The winner of these four Races in the same Season is designated as the Winner of the Grand Slam, which has been achieved on 12 occasions since 1972. The ambition of every rider is to be awarded his Club Colours. These are gold and scarlet which can be worn on a tie, scarf, cap and a sweater. Colours were first awarded to the eight riders chosen to represent St Moritz in the Davos International Race. It has become the practice to award Club Colours to the first eight riders to compete in these major races. The Blue Riband of the Handicap races is the Bott Cup (1905).

The Bott family can claim the distinction of having 6 generations of Cresta riders. About: Cresta Run About: Cresta Run An Entity of Type : Region108630985 , from Named Graph : , within Data Space : dbpedia.org The Cresta Run is a natural ice skeleton racing toboggan track in eastern Switzerland. Located in the winter sports town of St. Moritz, the 1.2125 km (0.753 mi) run is one of the few in the world dedicated entirely to skeleton. It was built in 1884 near the hamlet of Cresta in the municipality of Celerina/Schlarigna by Major Bulpett, eventual founder of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club (SMTC), George Robertson & Charles Digby Jones (Robertson and Digby Jones planned the proposed course), C Metcalfe and J Biddulph (the 5 making up the Kulm Hotel's Outdoor Amusement Committee) and the people of St. Moritz. It has continued as a partnership to this day between the SMTC, founded in 1887, and the people of St. Moritz.

Property abstract Cresta Run est une piste en glace naturelle de 1212,5 m (ou trois-quarts d'un mille de long) située dans la ville suisse de Saint-Moritz et utilisée pour le skeleton. C'est également la discipline qui est à l'origine du skeleton. Contrairement au athlètes du skeleton, ceux qui pratiquent le Cresta freinent en utilisant des chaussures spéciales. La piste fut construite en 1884 par le commandant Bulpetts - qui fonda plus tard le St Moritz Tobogganing Club (SMTC) - avec l'aide des habitants du hameau de Cresta, partie de la commune de Celerina/Schlarigna. Il fait aujourd'hui partie d'un partenariat avec Saint-Moritz depuis 1887, l'année de la création du SMTC. Le tobogganing sur piste de glace y trouve ses origines pendant les hivers des années 1870, lors des activités de sport d'hiver de l'Hôtel Kulm.

Le style de tobogganing tête en avant était connu sous le nom de Cresta racing. Toutefois, le style de tobogganing qui prédominait était encore celui où l'on est sur le dos, pieds en avant. L'invention du toboggan flexible (le Flexible Flyer, plus communément appelé the American) en 1887 mena un M. Cornish à faire du toboggan tête en avant dans la compétition Grand National de la même année. Il termina en quatorzième place à cause de glissades erratiques, mais il établit une mode : en 1890 tous les participants au Grand National faisaient du toboggan tête en avant. (fr) Cresta-Rennen, auch Cresta Run oder kurz Cresta, ist eine Wintersportart, die dem Skeleton sehr ähnlich ist und als dessen Vorläufer gilt. Auch die Austragungsbahn wird Cresta Run genannt. (de) The Cresta Run is a natural ice skeleton racing toboggan track in eastern Switzerland. Located in the winter sports town of St.

Moritz, the 1.2125 km (0.753 mi) run is one of the few in the world dedicated entirely to skeleton. It was built in 1884 near the hamlet of Cresta in the municipality of Celerina/Schlarigna by Major Bulpett, eventual founder of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club (SMTC), George Robertson & Charles Digby Jones (Robertson and Digby Jones planned the proposed course), C Metcalfe and J Biddulph (the 5 making up the Kulm Hotel's Outdoor Amusement Committee) and the people of St. Moritz. It has continued as a partnership to this day between the SMTC, founded in 1887, and the people of St. Moritz. The sport of intramural[clarification needed] sled racing originated around the nascent winter resort activities at the Kulm hotel in St. Moritz during the winters of the early 1870s, and today's members still congregate for lunch in the 'Sunny Bar' at the Kulm.

In the early days of competitive sledding, the predominant style was luge-style racing lying on one's back, but the invention of the flexible runner sled (Flexible flyer) in 1887, known colloquially as 'the America', led to Mr. Cornish using the head-first style in the 1887 Grand National. He finished fourteenth due to some erratic rides but established a trend and by the 1890 Grand National all competitors were riding head-first. The head-first style for a time became known as 'Cresta' racing. (en) De Cresta Run in Sankt Moritz, Zwitserland, is de enige natuurlijke skeletonbaan ter wereld. Hij heeft een lengte van 1215,25 meter en daalt 157 meter van start tot finish . (nl) Cresta-Rennen, auch Cresta Run oder kurz Cresta, ist eine Wintersportart, die dem Skeleton sehr ähnlich ist und als dessen Vorläufer gilt. Auch die Austragungsbahn wird Cresta Run genannt.

(de) De Cresta Run in Sankt Moritz, Zwitserland, is de enige natuurlijke skeletonbaan ter wereld. Hij heeft een lengte van 1215,25 meter en daalt 157 meter van start tot finish . (nl) The Cresta Run is a natural ice skeleton racing toboggan track in eastern Switzerland. Located in the winter sports town of St. Moritz, the 1.2125 km (0.753 mi) run is one of the few in the world dedicated entirely to skeleton. It was built in 1884 near the hamlet of Cresta in the municipality of Celerina/Schlarigna by Major Bulpett, eventual founder of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club (SMTC), George Robertson & Charles Digby Jones (Robertson and Digby Jones planned the proposed course), C Metcalfe and J Biddulph (the 5 making up the Kulm Hotel's Outdoor Amusement Committee) and the people of St. Moritz. It has continued as a partnership to this day between the SMTC, founded in 1887, and the people of St.

Moritz. (en) Cresta Run est une piste en glace naturelle de 1212,5 m (ou trois-quarts d'un mille de long) située dans la ville suisse de Saint-Moritz et utilisée pour le skeleton. C'est également la discipline qui est à l'origine du skeleton. Contrairement au athlètes du skeleton, ceux qui pratiquent le Cresta freinent en utilisant des chaussures spéciales. (fr) Skeleton Equipment and History - Olympic Sport History Sports History Skeleton racing involves plummeting head-first down a steep and treacherous ice track on a tiny sled. It is considered the world's first sliding sport. Thrill-seeking tourists Sleighing is one of the oldest winter sports. Descriptions of the sport can be found in 16th-century literature, but as a racing sport it can be traced to the mid-19th century, when British tourists started sliding down snowbound roads in the Alps. British and American holidaymakers built the first toboggan run in Davos in 1882. The Cresta run Skeleton sled racing owes it entire early history to St Moritz and the famed Cresta Run.

The sport developed in the Swiss resort town as a pursuit for the rich. E. F. Benson put it best when he wrote in 1913, “There is one Mecca, there is one St Peter's, and there is one Cresta.” Olympic history Men’s skeleton made two early appearances on the Olympic programme at its “ancestral” home of St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948. It was then dropped until it reappeared as a men’s and women’s event at Salt Lake City in 2002. Skeleton - Winter Olympic Sport Skeleton Heaton slides into Olympic history 18 Feb 1928 Skeleton racing involves plummeting head-first down a steep and treacherous ice track on a tiny sled. It is considered the world's first sliding sport. Thrill-seeking tourists Sleighing is one of the oldest winter sports. Descriptions of the sport can be found in 16th-century literature, but as a racing sport it can be traced to the mid-19th century, when British tourists started sliding down snowbound roads in the Alps. British and American holidaymakers built the first toboggan run in Davos in 1882.

The Cresta run Skeleton sled racing owes it entire early history to St Moritz and the famed Cresta Run. The sport developed in the Swiss resort town as a pursuit for the rich. E. F. Benson put it best when he wrote in 1913, “There is one Mecca, there is one St Peter's, and there is one Cresta.” Olympic history Men’s skeleton made two early appearances on the Olympic programme at its “ancestral” home of St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948. It was then dropped until it reappeared as a men’s and women’s event at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Question: In which resort is the Cresta Run toboggan race run?
Answer: St Moritz